Midnight Confessions
by BurningTyger
Summary: Marius and Enjolras share a quiet moment on the rooftop of the ABC Café, discussing life, liberty, and love.


Title: Midnight Confessions

Author: BurningTyger

Summary: Marius and Enjolras share a quiet moment on the rooftop of the ABC Café, discussing life, liberty, and love. *Very mild slash*

Rating: PG-13

WARNING: There are mildly slashy elements to this. Now please do not flame me claiming that you didn't know. You did, or at least you did if you read this warning. If the story sucks, I can take criticism, but don't flame. It's just not a bloody nice thing to do. If the plot itself is bad, well, that's my fault. I've never been inspired to write an even slightly slash-related fic before, but this plot bunny jumped out of my CD's Libretto and hung on for dear life.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, obviously. The characters belong to Victor Hugo, although I'm really basing this off the musical rather than the book (which I _have_ read, really, just not in the past year or so). I don't own any of the musical, either, in case you weren't sure. I intend NO infringement whatsoever, and I am not profiting from this in any way but through the immense joy I get from writing. Okay? Okay. Anyone hoping to start a legal battle can hit the "Back" button now; those of you who came for the story can read on.

Midnight Confessions

~~

Time: The night before they raise the barricade.

~~

The toasting seemed to go on forever -- the students were in such high spirits, and they'd had plenty of wine already. It would be different once the barricade was built, once the fighting started. The battle would change them all forever.

One had to wonder if this was not their last night as children.

These were the things Enjolras pondered as he sat upon the rooftop of the ABC Café, listening to the raucous singing from below.

A knock came from the dormer window through which he had climbed. The window rose, revealing a gently smiling face.

Marius, the one who stood to lose the most in this battle. Marius, the last person Enjolras truly wanted to see right now.

"The stars are out," Marius commented unnecessarily, as he shifted his slight frame through the open window. "Might I watch them with you?" He held out a bottle of wine and two glasses like a peace offering.

"If you can stay sober enough to keep yourself on the roof, go ahead," he replied. "How do they say it in America? 'It is a free country.'"

"Well, it's not. But it will be."

"Someday."

As he uncorked the bottle, Marius wondered where his friend's buoyant optimism had gone. He poured them each a glass. "Someday soon," he corrected lightly, handing a glass to Enjolras. He looked from the stars down to the street, and wondered what it would look like tomorrow. Bloodstained cobblestones, smoke rising from the guns and the cannons...and how many of his friends' bodies scattered upon the barricade? He didn't want to think about tomorrow right now; it was so much easier to be cheerful downstairs with his singing comrades. He addressed Enjolras without looking at him.

"Why did you leave?"

"I wanted to be alone, to think. They don't understand what the risks are, do they? But you -- the youngest of us all -- you know. You see it, don't you?"

"See what?"

"You see the street as it will be tomorrow, and you wonder if your body will be among those lying in the gutter."

"I hadn't even thought about my own death. My fears were for my friends...and for a stranger."

"A strange _girl_." Enjolras's sudden, bitter tone cut like steel into Marius.

"Enjolras, forgive me. When I was rambling on about her, I got the idea that I had upset you. Perhaps you thought I was going to desert you, but I thought it seemed more that you were...jealous."

He barked out a humorless laugh. "Jealous? Of whom?"

Marius hesitated. "Of the girl."

Another laugh, less bitter, and Enjolras looked down, not at his friend, but at his wineglass. He swirled the contents around and took a sip. "You always could see right through me, Marius. Please don't think any less of me for this. You know how I am: give me a girl with a brain and I'll lust after her until she invites me to bed or until another girl just like her comes along. One witty comment will make me fall for a woman, but you...I just don't know. You understand far more than is good for a boy your age, you know that? From the day I met you, I have always wanted to protect you...from anything that might do you harm."

"Even love?"

"Especially love. And in doing so, I suppose I betrayed myself, for I became my own enemy. I fell in love with you, my Marius."

Marius let that comment hang in the air for a moment, listening in the silence to the distant song or a churchbell. "I knew you did."

"As I said, you understand too much. You're far more observant than you should be, mon petit monsieur."

"Do you hate me now?"

"Hate you? For being in love! Marius, no! You are as I would want you to be forever: deliriously happy. If you are happy, then...I do not think I can find it in my own heart to be unhappy for you."

"I will stay and fight with you!" Marius swore, fearing that Enjolras thought he would desert the students.

"I never doubted you would. But promise me that if we are doomed, if it is certain that they will overcome us, you must flee. Crawl down into the sewers, if you must, so long as you escape. I will be content to die knowing that you shall live and love."

"Enjolras, you're not going to die!" Marius exclaimed with a nervous chuckle. "We will triumph, and Paris will soon bask in another Golden Age. Little Gavroche will never have to beg again, and I..."

"And you will be with the one you love, living happily ever after, all your days."

"I shall never forget you, Enjolras. You will always be welcome wherever I am, as my closest friend."

He smiled. "A toast. To your foolish idealism: may it never wane into the bitterness of a young man too soon grown old."

"You're not old! But a toast, nonetheless. To idealism...and to courage. May the generations to come look back to these nights and draw strength from them."

The clink of the goblets seemed loud in their ears; the sounds of the café below had ceased to exist for them. For awhile, they sat in silence, each dreading the coming dawn. As he studied the younger man, Enjolras could almost see him growing up in the moonlight. He saw the touch of gravity in Marius's distant eyes, the foreknowledge of rough times to come. The most innocent one of them all was no longer a boy, and the thought saddened him.

Finally, Marius set his glass down on the window-ledge. "I...should go back," he said haltingly, not really wanting to end this last solitary moment with his friend. "Will you come downstairs with me?"

"No. I want to think up here awhile longer. I may never have another starlit night to gaze at."

Suddenly overcome with apprehension, Marius found he could not speak for the sob that threatened to escape his throat. Rising from the edge of the rooftop, he turned and embraced his colleague, his best friend.

Enjolras returned the embrace warmly, welcoming this tiny indication that Marius still clung to some of his innocence. When they parted, Enjolras kissed him briefly on each cheek, then once, tenderly, on the lips.

"May God be kind to you, my Marius," he whispered, blinking away the tears that suddenly wanted to spill down his face. "You've so much to live for, mon petit."

"I hope that one day soon we can sit upon this rooftop again, to drink more wine and laugh at these foolish fears." More than starlight glittered in Marius's eyes as he said this, and his voice was strangely hushed and rasping.

Enjolras could not find it in himself to tell Marius that their cause was little more than hopeless. "When this is over, find her. Go to her, and make her as happy to love you as I have been all these years just to know you."

"When tomorrow comes, it will bring many changes, but I swear I will never forget you, Enjolras." With that, he climbed back through the window, leaving the bottle of wine. Enjolras poured himself another glass and settled back on the roof tiles to watch the moonset.

Marius was right about one thing, he reflected: tomorrow would bring changes for everyone.


End file.
